Second World

Jack teleported to the city, Themetus, which was the closest city to the Valley of Tempus. He then rode Pandora from there to the Busculla Plateau.

The valley was one long gorge along the plateau, Jack didn't remember which spot when he first escaped the valley using Pandora. He was too glad at the time for being able to leave the valley. Hence, he didn't bother paying attention to where he was. Now, he simply picked a spot and went down. He would do it like before, traveling along the cliff wall until he found the opening that was guarded by the Therras Beast.

He did not worry about getting past the Therras Beast. The beast was a level 45 rare elite. He could easily take care of it. Heck, he could summon his own Therras Beast and let it trash that guardian beast.

Jack reached the bottom and started going following the cliff wall. He still rode Pandora, it was faster this way.

As he did, he noticed something on his radar. Lots of red dots.

"Heh? I thought these things here stop appearing when one passes level 30?" Jack said. "There are even so many."

He then found the answer. The red dots were not heading his way. They were heading somewhere else. Jack followed them. At the place they were heading, some blue dots appeared at the edge of his radar.

"Players?" Jack said in surprise.

After he thought about it, he figured that this shouldn't be surprising. Unlike before when he first came to this valley, now more players were able to brave the wilderness. One or two players falling into this valley was not out of the question. If those players found no way to escape this place, their numbers might build up. These were probably the players that had been trapped here for some time.

He unsummoned Pandora and approached them on foot.

The valley had some kind of mysterious fog that hindered one's vision, but his Dragon Eye was still able to perceive further than normal players. So, when these players came into view, they weren't aware of him.

He saw about ten players who were fighting the shadow monsters. From his radar, he could see a couple more groups further away. Two of the players were level 47 while the rests were below level 30.

He studied these groups. "This feels a bit too coordinated," he said.

"If they have been here for some time, it is not strange for them to develop a system to fight against these shadows," Peniel offered her opinion.

"What about those level 47? Their levels are way ahead of the others."

"Those two might be the ones who have been here the longest. So, they get exp little by little despite fighting much weaker enemies."

"You know what? This looks like power-leveling to me."

"They probably just want these weaker players to hurriedly get past level 30, so they won't be bothered by the shadows again."

"Hm… Let's wait for them to finish."

Jack waited until they finished all the shadows. After they did, the groups laughed and high-fived one another.

'They don't look like people who are worried about getting trapped here with no way out,' Jack thought.

The shadows had an interval of three hours, so there were more than two hours before the next wave. Jack saw the players sitting on the ground and chatting among themselves.

'Yep, not like people who are trapped.'

Jack decided to approach them then. One of the sitting players noticed him and informed the others. One of the two level 47 players approached him. The guy was displaying a wide grin.

"Ahoy, friend! Did you fall into this valley? Have no worry! We of the Growth Aid Agency will be happy to help," the player uttered.

"Growth Aid Agency…?" Jack used Inspect on the guy. His name was Sonny, a level 47 Blade Dancer. As he had mentioned, he was registered as a member of a guild called Growth Aid Agency.

Seeing Jack's confused face, Sonny continued explaining, "There is no need to be confused. This place is indeed mysterious and scary, but with us as your guide, this place is a haven for fast leveling for those who have just died and reverted to level 1. Ah… But I see you still have all your equipment, you must have worn an Amulet of Rebirth when you fell. I guess you are only looking for a way out. Do not worry, we also have that covered. All you need to do, is pay a little fee and sign this NDA." Sonny produced a stack of papers and a pen.

"N… NDA…?" Jack said. He didn't know what to make of this.

"NDA. Non Disclosure Agreement," Sonny explained. "I can't tell you the way to exit this place if you don't sign. You have to understand, we can't have you tell everyone about this place. This valley is under the management of the Growth Aid Agency. We can help you exit this valley and we can also help you to fast level back to level 30 if you happen to fall to level 1. By the way, brother, I can't inspect your level. What is your level?"

"Fifty," Jack answered.

"Hahaha, you are funny!" Sonny slapped Jack's shoulder.

"So, these people all pay you for your service?" Jack asked.

"Yes. They are unfortunate people who lost all their levels. But with our help, they can get back to level 30 in no time and get back to their elite classes. This place threw monsters of their levels every three hours for them to grind for exp points. Do you also know that the time in this valley is slower? One week we spent here is only one day outside the valley."

"What exactly are the services you provide?"

"Why, speedy level up, of course. We help them get down to this valley safely, then help them fight the monsters this valley threw at them. Our average speed of leveling up people in this place from level 1 to 30 is around fourteen weeks. In the outside world, it is only two days. You won't find such express speed anywhere else. After they reached level 30, we end our service by guiding them on how to leave this place."

'So, there is truly another way of leaving this place,' Jack thought. To Sonny, he said, "How do you learn of this place and its exit?"

"Our leader fell into this valley unintentionally when he started to brave the wilderness," Sonny answered. "He spent one year roaming inside this valley. That is fifty-two days in the outside world. Until finally, he found the way out."

"Damn! One year inside here? That's rough. So, how did he get out of here?"

"He went to… Hey, man! Are you trying to trick me? Pay the fee and sign the NDA and I will tell you all about it," Sonny uttered.

"What's the fee?"

"5 gold coins," Sonny answered.

'That's cheap,' Jack thought. But then he looked at the low-level players who were resting. For them, probably 5 gold coins were expensive. They might have saved their coins in the bank before dying or borrowed the coins from their friends for this service.

"How many customers do you get normally?" Jack asked.

"Well, we usually help fifty people level up in an average of two weeks, that's two days outside."

'Wow! That means they got an income of 250 gold coins in two days?! Damn! This Growth Aid Agency produced even more coins than my two foodservice businesses,' Jack thought in wonderment.

"Dude, I admire your guild's creativity in turning this into business practice. Your leader must be a business genius in our past world. Here, these five gold coins are a show of my admiration," Jack said and handed him 5 gold coins.

"Thank you," Sonny accepted the coins with a wide grin. "Now, all you need is just sign this NDA and I can help you level up."

"I told you already I'm level 50. I don't need to level up. That coins are just a show of my admiration. Although I don't need to know the way out of this valley, I'm curious about it. If I sign this NDA, will you let me know?"

"Sure. Sign it. This NDA prohibits you from telling others about the secrets of this valley. Once you sign it, then I can tell you the secret of exiting this valley without worry."

Jack took the stack of paper. "Um, my inspect tells me it's just common papers. I also don't feel any mana. How exactly do these papers prevent people from keeping this valley a secret?"

"It's common sense, right? People who sign an NDA are obligated to obey the rule stipulated in the papers," Sonny replied.

"Uh… Um, then how do you enforce the law if someone broke your NDA?"

"We will take these papers to the authority and demand justice."

"… Have you tried that?"

"Why? No one has broken the NDA yet."

"How do you know the authority will give a shit about these papers."

"It's common sense, right? They got the person's signature, that means something."

"… I take my admiration back," Jack said.